Open this book and meet two rather remarkable people right on the first page. The Reverend James Cameron is visiting Cape Light for a variety of reasons. The town’s minister, Reverend Ben, is a close friend, and Cameron wants to thank the members of the local congregation for their contributions to his mission work in South America. Additionally, he’s suffering some severe health problems that will keep him from returning to his missionary labors for the foreseeable future.

Leigh Baxter is young, recently divorced, and pregnant with the child of her abusive ex-husband. Fearing that he will use his wealth and influence to take the child from her upon its birth, Leigh has fled her New Hampshire community in search of a somewhat isolated place where she can give birth without the fear that her ex-husband will step in to demand custody. Alas, that fear also means Leigh must become an expert in the art of deceiving others.

It’s just days before Thanksgiving as this book opens, and both Leigh and James are driving on the same road on a dark, snowy night. The late-night car accident is James Cameron’s fault, and it brings him together with Leigh in a most unusual and dramatic way. You’ll stay with this book as that relationship blossoms and survives some intense difficulties.

Sam and Jessica Morgan, whose on-again, off-again wedding kept readers of the first book in this series entertained and interested, are back in book 5. Jessica has endured a miscarriage, and Sam is hiding his emotions behind a desire to work harder at a center for troubled youth. As a troubled boy from the center enters their lives, the marriage is shaken as the two adjust to the idea that they may never be able to have children of their own. Of course, several of the main characters in the series remain part of this book as well. Town Mayor Emily Warwick draws ever closer to a marriage to former newspaper publisher Dan Forbes.

While I enjoyed this book, I must tell you that its plot suffered from a nasty case of contrived artificiality. Initially, Jessica has some real problems with the troubled boy her husband, Sam, takes under his wing. At some point in the book, she changes completely, and that change just seemed too jarring and artificial and unbelievable for me to deal with happily. Do I finish the other books in this series? Yeah, probably, but not without a certain level of wariness creeping in.